They are slightly lighter (rudders about a 1/4 lb ea, boards about 1 - 1.5lb ea)
Stiffness is slightly better - but more fragile - the rudder shape is altered a little - slightly fuller shape (they made new molds for them and improved the shape) I believe now though that even the white ones are made in the same molds so there shouldn't be any difference - but if you have older rudders they are slightly better.

We use them and the downwind handling improved - and it lightened the boat by around 3 lbs total.

Thanks, I have an 04, so I assume they have changed. On a different note, what did you think of the Infusion. I like the Tiger and am not considering a change, just curious. thanks again for your time. Rick

I've been meaning to write a short summary about my sail on it for a while, so thanks for this question:

I sailed the Infusion a couple of weeks back with Melvin - I'm not exactly sure what I thought....its hard to say if it was really faster or if it was just Pete and I getting the better of the competition. (It was a small fleet and I'd bet we'd taken the win regardless of the boat we sailed)

I know that in the super light flat water races earlier in the day we were (I thought) faster...I think its kind of the same thing as we've noticed before with the Nacra - once the winds were up a bit and the chop got going we didn't really have anything electric upwind.....but once we turned to go downhill we had better speed. In the later higher wind races we didn't really get a great lead, Jeff Newsome was hot on our tails each time. I was trying to think - if Greg and I had been on our Tiger might we of been faster?

One thing that bothers me about the boat is that the flat shape of the hull bottom slaps in chop, like the Fox does, this to me seems slow...but I'm not a boat designer, and maybe it will prove not to matter....or maybe it will make it suffer in certain conditions...we'll have to wait and see on that.

So I'm not totally decided on it..... there were a few things that I did think still needed to be worked out with their systems - and the hull construction, the infusion process they are using makes the hull appear a bitt waffly and unfaired - it didn't look like a production quality boat, it still looked a bit rough and unfinished (just my opinion) I am going to add that this boat was maybe the first one built, so I'll cut them some slack...I know the first few boats anyone builds will have their issues...I'm really not wanting to sound negative about the boat - so don't get me wrong....it was fun, and Pete was a treat, and the boat is nice. (I just prefer the Tiger)

Overall my feeling is that it might one day prove to have a slight advantage in one condition. I really think that what makes the Tiger great are that its good in all wind ranges and all different wave conditions - it may not be the fastest in one particular type of condition....but the strength of the class association and the fact that it is an ISAF one design class as well as an F18 makes the boat -number one- in my book. Add to that the large dealer support, and the great World championships and free shipping to the events - it really starts to swing in favor of the Tiger.

I was thinking after Virginia last year that the Nacra had its strengths, those were super light air and flat water races, we weren't the fastest in those races, but once the winds were better (like enough to maybe trap one person and above) the Tigers had them covered....So this new boat will maybe improve on that. The Nacra's sails and mast have also been changed - Because they've had stiffness issues with their mast extrusions in the past - that makes a big difference in performance. (I'm sure they'll get it solved) they have allot of new pieces to get figured. Its a completely new boat really, so it ill be some time before they get it dialed.

And now lastly they've pushed the launch date back (I'm guessing to work out some kinks) I think it will be a while before we really know how good a job Pete has done on this design.